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The USSR in 100 Photographs

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Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#81

Post by epolanski »

Arodex wrote: post #35
epolanski wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me too, Poland, but I don't share the sentiment a bit. I'm not denying things are better now, but they are also much more complex, people socialize way less, neighborhoods that were filled with life are now filled by cars taking any corner and you barely see anybody sitting outside and just talking. People are way more anxious and less happy, have no kids at all. Are we better overall? Sure. If you look at the financ…

>they are also much more complex, people socialize way less, neighborhoods that were filled with life are now filled by cars taking any corner and you barely see anybody sitting outside and just talking. People are way more anxious and less happy, have no kids at all. This is also the contrast you can see in countries that didn't live under a single-party rule with a secret police that can disappear you at any moment…

You are right this is a disease of modernity, not much about Polish transition from PRL.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#82

Post by epolanski »

nec4b wrote: post #80
epolanski wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they were not, why would you assume so? Communist party was very unpopular in Poland, even though registering was free and had benefits no more than 2.5% of poles ever signed to it.

In my experience those are the people who miss the "good" old times, when everything had order and hierarchy. Wikipedia says the communist party in Poland had 3 million member which is about 10% of the population at the time. If you add the family members and close relatives, the number of people living a privileged life was quite big. Red nobility is known phenomenon in former communist countries. https://simple.wik…

You can look and Google for many polls conducted on the topic, 2014 was the first year more Poles had a negative than a positive opinion on the PRL (46 vs 44%) and that's because as time progresses average voter age goes down.

People that were at least 15 by 1989 (the last year of communism in Poland) had a warm opinion on it.

It's really younger generations that did not live in PRL that hold overwhelmingly negative opinions on it.

In any case, I'm not sure why am I arguing with you? I'm Polish and my family lived those eras, so did my friends and their families.

Simple fact is: during communism people enjoyed fair lives, there was lots of safety, everybody had a job and a roof on their head and could afford one vacation per year. People made friends, sports, had hobbies and they were younger, so they remember the times as okay.

On the other hand, people that did not live them, base their opinions on vibes and their external idea of how it was to live under PRL.

Look, nobody is saying that life isn't better now, of course it is. But don't believe it was that bad. It was called "second" world and not "third" for a reason. It was okay.

Yet in yanks minds we were living some dystopia were everybody lacked everything and was unhappy and their neighbour was gonna report them for anything.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#83

Post by hagbard_c »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #16
f6v wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People, on average, were much less unhappy than others believe.

I like the picture showing off the full shelf of bread. Which Russian leader came over here and thought he was seeing a potemken village of grocery stores

That picture is the USSR equivalent of the pictures of clean streets without homeless encampments made in San Francisco when Gavin Newsom cleaned up the place before the leader of the Chinese Communist Party visited the city [1]. Come to think of it that's quite the telling statement.

[1] https://www.scnr.com/article/thats-true-because-its-true-new...

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#84

Post by hagbard_c »

well_ackshually wrote: post #9
Eriks wrote: post #4

no photos of KGB prisons or gulags? Not surprising..

Americans prisons have been historically so much better than USSR prisons, sure <3

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? If not you should, it tells you a lot about Soviet prisons and a lot of other things Soviet you might do well learning about. Read it, it is well-written and - at least in my opinion - quite the page-turner. If you don't think you can manage to make your way through consider listening to an (unabridged) audio book version.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#85

Post by cindyllm »

hagbard_c wrote: post #84
well_ackshually wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans prisons have been historically so much better than USSR prisons, sure <3

Have you read The Gulag Archipelago? If not you should, it tells you a lot about Soviet prisons and a lot of other things Soviet you might do well learning about. Read it, it is well-written and - at least in my opinion - quite the page-turner. If you don't think you can manage to make your way through consider listening to an (unabridged) audio book version.

[dead]

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#86

Post by hagbard_c »

tocs3 wrote: post #54
TomMasz wrote: post #49

The photos of stores and the paucity of merchandise available say a lot.

Yes, I have heard a lot about the austerity of life in the USSR growing up in the 1980s. Comparing life in the world of today to what was available , even in the US, is going to look meager. Growing up in a small town in the 1980s in the US our local grocery store could be measured in the 100s sqft (that also sold clothing and was a feed store) . Now in the same area I shop in a store that can be measured in acres wi…

You're comparing a (probably rural?) 'general store' in the 80's with current megastores and for some reason link that to the austerity experienced under communism with centrally planned economies. That's a silly comparison since those small rural general stores still exist - there's one a few km from where I live in Sweden which sells everything from groceries to clothes to tools, doubles as a feed store and also happens to sell a few dozen types of lubricants for agricultural equipment, all in a collection of small wooden buildings of the type the Swedish countryside is dotted with - and will hopefully continue doing so in the future. Compare the average supermarket in the USA in the 80's with the non-party-member equivalents in the eastern bloc countries in the same time for a better comparison. I never made it to Russia in that time but I did visit Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia - both countries no longer exist - as well as the USA in that time and the difference was as clear as daylight. The USA was and still is the land of plenty, even compared to the Netherlands where I'm from and then lived but especially compared to those eastern bloc countries. This was not a matter of 'different times' but 'different political and economical systems'.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#87

Post by hagbard_c »

epolanski wrote: post #14

At times I think about how democracies, especially those plagued by winner-takes-all mechanics like presidential and semi-presidential republics, can pretend to be democratic while de facto being very authoritarian. In the USSR, workers (in Soviets) voted their delegates and the delegates in turn elected the top hierarchy of the communist party. So yes, the USSR was obviously an authoritarian regime controlled by a s…

> In the USSR, workers (in Soviets) voted their delegates and the delegates in turn elected the top hierarchy of the communist party.

Are you seriously claiming that 'workers' in the USSR had any influence on what happened in the Party? If so you fell for the propaganda and need to read up on the real history of Communism - not Howard Zinn, not whatever the Soviet 'history' books say.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#88

Post by DivingForGold »

iammjm wrote: post #19

More like: USSR propaganda in 100 photographs. One “man in space” vs millions of people devoid of plumbing and basic products, all living in a repressive orwellian society. The aftermath is still tangible: former satellite states are even after 30 years behind Western Europe economically, the former USSR republics are either marginalised, autocratic or in active war for their survival against their former colonial ma…

I suppose you were the one who flagged this. I had a business in the former countries of the USSR, traveled there many times, some of the women were stunningly beautiful, I married one. These photos bring back lots of memories.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#89

Post by jst1fthsdys »

TiredOfLife wrote: post #68
anavat wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was far from utopia but it wasn't orwellian. It was different in a way that's hard to explain if you didn't experience it. The lack of public goods, lower living standards, and the oppressiveness of the state were somewhat compensated by the peace of mind coming from knowing that you couldn't become unemployed or homeless. This is what a lot of people miss when they say they miss USSR.

Soviet union had homeless and unemployed people, It was a criminal offence with prison terms starting at 1 year in colony. There was even a law specifically for gypsies where punishment for unemployment was 2-5 years in siberia.

If you don’t work, you don’t eat.

Re: The USSR in 100 Photographs

#90

Post by Sabinus »

mnky9800n wrote: post #40
lnsru wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This topic is very interesting. People from former Soviet states learned what and when to say. Sometimes in brutal inhumane way. Saying that dad brought some sausage or construction material from work was a thing kids learned not to say in public very early. There were many things no to say. Like Xmas or Easter celebrations were topic for family members only. Burial with a priest was tabu. Grandfather fighting Soviet…

It’s not so bad to keep your mouth shut. Americans blab about everything constantly.

It actually is a bad experience to live under a totalitarian regime in fear of disappearing forever if you said the wrong thing to the wrong person. And it's kinda weird you're minimising that.
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